Independence Day 2001
May I never wake up from the American dream. ~Carrie Latet
Old & Young Alike Celebrate July 4th
Aunt Edith never missed a celebration in 15 years... Always a smile!
i
Suck it in Eddie! Ed was chief cook for years and amaster of the
grille!
Kat Robinson always enjoyed the
celebrations
Why the fourth?
Though the Fourth of July is iconic to Americans, some claim the date itself is somewhat arbitrary.
New Englanders had been fighting Britain since April 1775.
The first motion in the Continental Congress for independence was made on June 4, 1776.
After hard debate, the Congress voted unanimously, but secretly, for independence from Great Britain on July 2 (the Lee Resolution) and appointed Thomas Jefferson to write a draft.
The Congress reworked the draft until a little after eleven o’clock, July 4, when twelve colonies voted for adoption (New York courteously abstained from both votes) and released a copy to the printers signed only by John Hancock, President of the Congress, and Secretary Charles Thomson.
Philadelphia celebrated the Declaration with public readings and
bonfires on July 8. Not until August 2 would a fair printing be signed
by the members of the Congress, but even that was kept secret to protect
the members from possible British reprisals.
John Adams, credited by Thomas Jefferson as the unofficial, tireless
whip of the independence-minded, wrote to his wife Abigail on July 3,
1776:
The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the
history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by
succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival.
It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.
It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games,
sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this
continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.
Adams was off by two days, however. Certainly, the vote on July 2 was
the decisive act. But July 4 is the date that Jefferson's stirring
prose, as edited by the Congress, was officially adopted and was the
first day Philadelphians heard any concrete news of independence from
the Continental Congress, as opposed to rumors in the street about
secret votes.
Observance
- In 1778, thirteen guns were fired, once at morning and again as evening fell, on July 4 in Bristol, Rhode Island. Philadelphia celebrated the first anniversary in a manner a modern American would find quite familiar: an official dinner for the Continental Congress, toasts, 13-gun salutes, speeches, prayers, music, parades, troop reviews, and fireworks. Ships were decked with red, white, and blue bunting.
- In 1778, General George Washington marked the Fourth of July with a double ration of rum for his soldiers and an artillery salute. Across the Atlantic Ocean, ambassadors John Adams and Benjamin Franklin held a dinner for their fellow Americans in Paris, France.
- In 1779, July 4 fell on a Sunday. The holiday was celebrated on Monday, July 5.
- In 1781, Massachusetts was the first legislature to recognize the Fourth of July.
- In 1783, Moravians in Salem, North Carolina, held the first celebration of the Fourth of July in the country with a challenging music program assembled by Johann Friedrich Peter. This work was titled “The Psalm of Joy.”
- In 1791 was the first recorded use of the name “Independence Day.”
- In 1870, the U.S. Congress made Independence Day an unpaid holiday for federal employees.
- In 1941, Congress changed Independence Day to a paid federal holiday. The residents of Vicksburg, Mississippi, celebrated the Fourth of July for the first time since July 4, 1863, when the Siege of Vicksburg ended with a Union victory during the American Civil War.
Family
Family is a Western term used to have denote a domestic group of
people, or a number of domestic groups linked through descent
(demonstrated or stipulated) from a common ancestor, marriage or
adoption.
A family may be defined specifically as a group of people affiliated by
consanguinity, affinity, and co-residence. Although the concept of
consanguinity originally referred to relations by blood, many
anthropologists argue that the notion of "blood" must be understood
metaphorically; some argue that there are many non-Western societies
where family is understood through other concepts rather than "blood" .
Article 16(3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, "The
family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is
entitled to protection by society and the State".